The U.S.’s use of the atomic bomb in 1945 obliterated any preconceived understanding of the rules of war. Images from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings flooded movie-theater newsreels and the devastation was praised on Uncle Sam propaganda posters. Suddenly, the public at large found itself shouldering the weight of this mass destruction of human life. Now on view at Washington, D.C.’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the exhibition “Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950” examines the anxiety about global annihilation that has saturated art and pop culture in the decades following World War II.

The survey showcases about 90 works—sculpture, painting, illustrations, films, and other media—from the international art community. Among these are pieces by Yoshimoto Nara, who references centuries-old Japanese decorative works. In one work, Nara alters a reproduction of a woodblock print depicting a Japanese woman in a state of partial undress, patterned fabrics draped loosely around her body. The artist subverts this traditional image by adding distinctly Western touches (the woman sports punkish piercings, for example). On a strip of fabric and across the drawing, Nara has painted “NO FUN” in a style that could be seen as mimicking American pro-war fliers of the 1940s.

Ed Ruscha lends a sinister edge to the art of architectural renderings in his large-scale piece The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire. Ruscha places the famous complex against an eerie yellow-green background, fire streaming from the complex’s Ahmanson Building. Painted during the Cold War and devoid of human figures, the canvas stands as a kind of apocalyptic vision.

Through May 26, 2014, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; hirshhorn.si.edu